“The Budget Allocated to the Army is Being Misallocated: We Are Going in the Opposite Direction” - Mjvoses Hakobyan

The former chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Mjvoses Hakobyan, stated in an interview with the ‘Joghvorud’ newspaper that the balance between the military leadership and the fighting troops is disproportionately disrupted. According to him, instead of following the established norms, we are heading in the opposite direction.

Hakobyan, a former high-ranking military official, emphasized that the army currently has a large number of leaders but very few soldiers. “It is also incorrect how the budget for the army is being redistributed,” he says. “My fellow soldiers might be upset with me, but the reality is that the misallocation of the budget will also dismantle what we have built over the years.”

The budget allocated to the army consists of four parts: salaries, training, provision, and development. The first three branches should equally receive funding, let’s say 30 percent each, while 10 percent should be allocated for development, but even that balance is disrupted,” he added.

Hakobyan claims that many high-ranking officials in the military are currently engaged in populism, believing that combat readiness depends solely on providing soldiers with good food and high salaries. However, he strongly disagrees with this assertion: “The combat readiness of the army stems from the state of a soldier’s training, high moral and psychological qualities, and being well-equipped, among other factors.”

It turns out that many of the servicemen working or serving today are merely receiving salaries from the defense agency,” he noted.